Brooklyn Expo Center Opens Doors with Antiques Fair

The much talked about Greenpoint Expo Center will open its doors this September when it hosts the first ever Brooklyn Antiques and Book Fair.

Over 100 exhibitors from across the country will make their way to the huge glass structure on Franklin Street to sell fine antiques, vintage books, posters, and a vast variety of prints.

The event is being put together by Marvin Getman, the founder of Impact Events Group, best known for the antiques and vintage book fairs it organizes throughout the northeastern part of the country.

“Brooklyn is the hottest market in the country right now and we are excited to be a part of this explosive creative energy,” said Getman. “The timing for a new venue of this kind is ideal, with so many art galleries, one-of-a-kind stores, music venues and trend-setting restaurants opening in the area.”

The two-day fair will be a haven for vintage goods and antiques collectors.

Fine quilts dealer Laura Fisher will be on hand to sell quilts including celebrity-autographed items from 1960’s TV stars like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and a rare piece of textile work – a schoolgirl’s needlework that dates back to 1811 and depicts St. Patrick’s Cathedral in lower Manhattan.

Among drawings, posters, and paintings the exhibit will feature the works of celebrated early 20th century printmaker and painter Rockwell Kent, Manhattan cityscapes from the 1860s, including a representation of a beer party in Manhattan at the time characterized by a horse-drawn wagon filled with kegs, and a series of eight oil-paintings depicting Prospect Park in the 1920s.

The selection of books is possibly more impressive. The very first edition of the first baseball book, Noah Brooks’ 1884 novel Our Base Ball Club and How It Won The Championship, a 1678 edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost, a 1679 first English-language of the French masterpiece Princess of Cleves, by Madame de Lafayette, a 1731 cookbook that shows readers what English royalty ate, and a four-language Psalter from 1518 are just some of the literary highlights at the fair.

Other notable features of the event include a children’s book donation drive – with those bringing children’s books receiving a $6 entry to the event, half of the full-price admission. All books will be donated to the Brooke Jackman Foundation, which seeks to help underprivileged children through literacy programs.

A preview event with $25 admission tickets held a day before the fair will generate proceeds for the Brooklyn Public Library/Friends of Greenpoint.

For Greenpoint residents, the fair is a first look at the exhibition space, owned by controversial real estate developer Joshua Guttman, owner of the Greenpoint Terminal Market, which burned down in 2006 and the lofts at 247 Water Street, the scene of a 2004 blaze.